Illusionist Mat Franco is the perfect balance of young enough and old enough:
• Old enough that his “training” as a magician involved not YouTube or TikTok videos, but actual videotapes of legendary magicians of the ’90s, folks like David Copperfield, Penn & Teller and Lance Burton, whom Franco would watch over and over, rewinding and playing everything back in slow motion. (If you don’t know what a videotape is, ask your grandfather.)
• Young enough that he’s taken full advantage of social media, using the pandemic downtime to post videos on Instagram showing his talents as an illusionist to hilarious effect.
• Old enough that in his hit show at The Linq to pay tribute to groundbreaking magicians of generations past, including a version of Bill Malone’s classic “Sam the Bellhop” card trick, which Franco has customized in his own, unique version.
• Young enough that he appeals to all ages, including the kids who flock to his performances with their parents. One of his show’s most memorable moments is to when he has a youngster join him onstage for the grand finale involving numerous decks of cards, a card cannon, and a red button. (If you find it hard not to press a big red button, imagine how hard it is to resist for a 10-year-old!)
• Old enough to have mastered one of the hardest sleight-of-hand tricks to pull off: Making cards appear as if from thin air, and not just one or two cards, but entire decks. Franco is careful to thank the magician he originally saw perform this trick, along with a great story of how he and his grandmother came up with an imaginative way of pulling it off.
• Young enough to know that, as accomplished as he has become in his six years at The Linq Hotel, he’s just getting started. The pandemic shutdown gave him time to reassess his show, and he ended up adding several new illusions to the proceedings, one featuring a poker table, four volunteers and a whole lot of cards, another featuring a helium-filled balloon and a contraption that seems to “drain” its ability to float.
Perhaps the aspect of Franco’s show that ties it together so perfectly for fans young and old is his playfulness—Franco can be an absolute scamp at times, messing with audience members who remain oblivious because of Franco’s mastery of misdirection. Kids laugh with glee at these antics, while parents silently say, “Thank god that’s not me up there!” By far, the most engaging bits are those that involve the audience, and Franco knows this; in fact, he takes great care to take note of everything revealed during a show (ages, anniversaries, birthdays, cities volunteers are from, etc.). Why? Because he uses it all at the end of the show in a signature illusion that gives his show its name: Magic Reinvented Nightly.
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